Northern Queen Lettuce Seed

Planted this year in the Queen of England's Palace Garden and on the White House lawn, this lettuce variety has been enjoyed for over 50 years now. Slowfood lists it as extremely rare and endangered. We are happy to have it available to you this year in VERY limited quantities.

Gardenorganic.org.uk/ says...
"The donor found these seeds amongst her father’s gardening clutter. Further investigation revealed the variety was originally sold by Finney’s, a Northumberland firm with nurseries in Newcastle. Finney¹s closed in the 1950s, at which time NorthernQueen was the main outdoor variety, popular with both amateur and commercial growers. A large butterhead variety with soft, mild flavored leaves."

California Grown Seed
Northern Queen performed very well here. It was a favorite amongst dinner guest for its sweet, crunchy flavor. Was very slow to bolt. In fact, this made it a challenge for collecting seed since it was the last to go to seed. Exactly what you would want a lettuce to do!

Seed Planting Depth

Seeds per gram

Germination Temperature

Days to Germination

Row Spacing

Plant Spacing

100' Row Yield

Sun

1/8"

600-800

40-65

2-14

12"

8"

80 lb.

Full to Partial

Latuca sativa

Planting Tips:

Sow directly into very fertile, loose soil. Thin down to final spacing once plants are established. For best results, plant in spring or fall. Harvest outside leaves for a continual harvest. For longer harvest, stagger plantings every 2-3 weeks.

Heat Tolerance: If you are growing lettuce in the heat, plant them where they will get afternoon shade. Lettuce is a spring and fall crop in really hot areas.

Harvest Tips: For a continual harvest, sow every 2-3 weeks a new crop if cutting full heads, otherwise harvesting outside leaves will encourage a longer harvest from individual plants.

Seeding Rate:

30,000 plants/acre, aproximately 2 oz.

Heirloom seeds are hardy but always take care with your garden seeds to give them the appropriate amount of moisture - not letting the vegetable seeds dry out prematurely or overwatering and possibly having them rot.

Boone County White was created by Mr. James Riley of Boone County, Indiana back in 1874. Boone County was very popular for good reason - it is a very heavy producer of huge ears that measure 9-11" in length. That is almost a foot long! The uniform ears have 18-22 rows. Heavily leaved 9-11' stalks are great for shading out understory weeds.